Sculpture Line
Prague 2020

1.1. — 31.12.2020

The next SCULPTURE LINE festival will again introduce you to sculptures and art objects of leading home and international artists in the "open air" gallery. Czech streets, squares and other public spaces will decorate dozens of fine art works of famous and young artists from both, czech and from abroad.

The purpose of the exhibition is to enhance and enrich the public space, to offer a new look to cities and to the works of art, both for the inhabitants and for the visitors.

We invite you to the streets. Join the Line, enjoy the Line!

Rhinoceros

Rhinoceros

Jaroslav Róna (*1957)

Jungmann Square Jungmannovo náměstí, Praha 1
Uninstalled The sculpture of Rhinoceros was created from a simple idea - to use the protective armor of one species of African rhino, consisting of massive leathery and horned plates to create a fantastic figure of a rhino knight - a colossus that will combine human and animal elements. At the same time, the sculpture symbolically points to the need for world protection of a beautiful creature from the African wilderness, which, thanks to human stupidity, superstition and greed, is gradually disappearing from the earth's surface. It is common knowledge that rhinos have been systematically hunted over the last century for their horn, which is sought after by the superstition - that the powder from it cures male impotence. The forgotten theme of the knight in armor is one of the distinctive sculptural themes that the author returns to the scene of contemporary sculpture after a long time, of course in a transformed form, which proves that no theme is ever doomed to permanent oblivion.
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Reader in an armchair

Reader in an armchair

Jaroslav Róna (*1957)

nám. Franze Kafky Nám. Franze Kafky 18/6, 110 00 Staré Město
The sculpture was created as the third variant of the statue of the Reader, originally intended to be installed in front of a public library building. Paradoxically, however, already at a time when the order was long gone and no library showed interest in it. Nevertheless, I then gradually became very interested in the issue of the statue of a man immersed in the world unfolding in the book. Through the reader's statue I wanted to portray both the reader and the imaginative world of the book. I used an armchair for this purpose. The armchair is a soft and soothing wall that protects us from the pragmatic world around us allowing us to escape into the worlds of imagination and fantasy. It is a dreamy armchair, and the reader is intentionally an anonymous and symbolic figure, easily interchangeable with any reader. At the same time, the armchair adds monumentality to the statue reinforcing the significance and importance of this fragile theme. Last but not least, it is also necessary to pay tribute to the world of paper book at a time when it is threatened (and so are we!) by the aggressive world of information technology and castrated e - books.
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Wooden Cloud

Wooden Cloud

Martin Steinert

Prague - Bubny Bubenská 177, Praha - Holešovice
Since 24.11.2020 moved from Smetanovo nábřeží to Prague-Bubny. Martin Steinert is a guest of the residency programme of the Goethe-Institut. He will stay in Prague for three weeks and create his work at the occasion of the Sculpture Line festival. During his stay, he is going to create the Prague version of his “Wooden Cloud”. For several years, the work of sculptor Martin Steinert has included spatial installations made of ordinary wooden laths. It was people’s great interest in mostly several-week processes of creating objects in public space which has led Martin Steinert to the idea of involving people directly into his work. In June 2015, Martin Steinert built a monumental sculpture of almost 2,000 meters of wooden slats in the apse of the church of St. John (Johanneskirche) in Saarbrücken. During the four-week creation of the installation, visitors to the church were invited not only to watch the sculptor's work, but even to take part in it themselves. Approximately 1,200 people wrote their personal wishes on prepared wooden slats which Martin Steinert then incorporated into his installation. Their wishes, formulated on the slats as individual manifestos of dreams, hopes and expectations, branched out into thousands of synapses. In this way, an art project called Wooden Cloud – Die Architektur der Wünsche (Architecture of Wishes) was created and set out on its journey. The wooden cloud floats from Saarbrücken through selected cities of the world and it is always created in a new form in prominent public places. Temporary installations made of wooden slats with inscriptions on them become snapshots of social atmosphere. So far, the wooden cloud has stopped on its way in St. Petersburg in 2016, in Berlin in 2017, in Paris in 2018, and the fifth “Wooden Cloud” was created in Al-Istiqlal Park in Ramallah in 2019. Two more wooden clouds are going to be created in 2020 in Prague and Tirana.
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Two Armchairs

Two Armchairs

Alexandra Koláčková (*1964)

Dětský ostrov Dětský ostrov, Smíchov, Praha 5
Uninstalled Pieces of art have been commonplace in parks and gardens since anyone can remember. They may be a discreet accessory, an extravagant jewel, a guide or a centrepiece of the garden's design – and the main reason for its existence. An art piece and its placement in the garden can have a deeply personal meaning, or it can be the result of a meticulously focused architectural intent. The creations of Alexandra Koláčková are immediately recognizable and her style unmistakable. And yet despite this – or maybe precisely because of this – they set the narration line of the area in motion in so many different ways... They serve as a decorative piece or a climbing frame; they can be the centre of the universe or a tiny surprise hiding under the bench... And that is why I personally value Alexandra's work so much.  Most gardens are not meant to be just observed, but rather used in active ways – their space waiting to be touched, sat on, jogged through... Everything is permitted – even welcome. The same applies to Alexandra Koláčková's sculptures. Their simple, rounded and approachable shapes as well as their larger than life size outright beg to be climbed on. This has a tremendous benefit for a garden architect like me. A garden, with everything in it, should be inviting, welcoming and open to visitors – it should encourage exploration and discovery. In case of Alexandra's sculptures, this is often literally the case, with hands or even whole bodies inviting visitors to sit, lie or rest on them. Whatever they want and whatever they can think of, be it children, their parents or their imagination.  Kateřina Pospíšilová, garden architect
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Lifeboats

Lifeboats

Johannes Pfeiffer

Smíchovská náplavka Smíchovská náplavka, Smíchov, Praha 5, 150 00
Fluorescent, delicate, light: the five boats, designed by the visual artist Johannes Pfeiffer, have found their destination on the banks of the Vltava River where it runs towards the city centre of Prague. The old wall of the dock they are fixed on, thus becomes a boathouse for these little boats, which seem to be waiting for anybody who is in need of them. The title of the work itself, Lifeboats, suggests rescue vessels, small sloops that are used for rescuing people. But approaching them one makes a bitter discovery: the ships are leaking. The material they are made of is a metal net and therefore not impenetrable. The boats which at closer look seem more like fragile leaves than solid vessels can´t transport anybody, can´t rescue anybody as water comes in. This work of art is a symbol of the difficult period which has taken humankind unprepared, in which no lifeboat seems safe enough to rescue all. But although the installation radiates uncertainty, the artist, conveys the awareness that there is still hope. And then the little boats change dimensions for the third time and become burning torches. Thanks to their fluorescent colour which at night makes them visible also from far away they change into beacons of hope, which give comfort by signalising the existence of a new accessible way.   Giulia Cordò "The artwork Lifeboats is installed with financial support of the Czech-German Fund for the Future."
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